Alfred Manuel, Rocklands
I wrote to managers at the City of Cape Town complaining about the infestation of cockroaches, which are crawling out of drain and manholes in Impala, Piper and Phantom roads on Thursday May 23.
Up till now nothing has been done to remedy the situation.
The drains are not cleaned and sprayed regularly, which causes our homes to be bombarded with cockroaches crawling from the drains.
Our house is situated on the corner of Impala and Piper roads and therefore we are facing two unsightly filthy drains which is greatly the cause of the cockroach problem.
Please make us proud of your slogan: “The City Works for You.”
Xanthea Limberg, mayoral committee member for water and waste, responds
This resident originally submitted the complaint directly to the local Roads Infrastructure Management (RIM) Department, who have confirmed that they responded to the complaint and sprayed the stormwater drains in the area, and the sewers have also been sprayed.
In general, the City does not routinely spray for cockroaches but will spray when requested.
This is best done by logging a call with the City’s call-centre and requesting pest-control or cockroach-spraying at a particular address for which a reference or notification number would be issued.
Finding the source of cockroaches can be challenging as it is often not clear whether they are living in the sewers, stormwater drains or on private property.
If possible, residents should please indicate whether it is the sewers or stormwater that needs to be sprayed.
We also encourage those who encounter problems with cockroaches to spray their own sewers to ensure the problem is effectively dealt with, as the City is not legally permitted to do this work on private property.